Trouble logging in?If you can't remember your password or are having trouble logging in, you will have to reset your password. If you have trouble resetting your password (for example, if you lost access to the original email address), please do not start posting with a new account, as this is against the forum rules. If you create a temporary account, please contact us right away via Forum Support, and send us any information you can about your original account, such as the account name and any email address that may have been associated with it.

I mean like in this world. How many times have people taken things for granted? Once things start to fall apart, people are quick to put all the blame on God (like Yuri).

Also, when you have someone like Kanade who is very reserved to herself because she doesn't bother in making new friends (because they would disappear). Again, very realistic, especially when I see people sitting away in corners by themselves in school because of bullying and etc.

And here you have Otonashi, who like Terry Fox has something drastic happen to him, decides to shape his life for the purpose of helping others but circumstances/fate gives it a different turn, but both leave behind a legacy for which others can follow.

Hm? Have you played Clannad, Little Busters, or Air? At least seen the corresponding anime?

I hope I misinterpreted you, and if so, then please excuse me.

No, I meant what I wrote.

I didn't really want to touch anything KEY again after After Story as it's the same overblown melodrama again presented in a slightly different manner. I tried watching the first 3 episodes of Angel Beats! and I already knew that this is pretty much KEY's Standard Operating Procedure.

The last episode is getting bashed quite severely in the Ep13 thread. But overall I really enjoyed this show.

In order to enjoy this series, you really have to throw logic out the window. It is not meant to be a series that has all the dots connected for you at the end. It's much more of a touchy-feely show. If you do not immediately gravitate to Otonashi's kindness or Yuri's inner struggles as a leader, then this show is not for you. It's melodramatic so get your popcorn, pump up the speakers and enjoy - for goodness sake. Don't overanalysis or It will cost you the show. The theme of redemption is presented very clearly in this show, see it and feel it with your heart.

My view on the anime, and the message Jun Maeda is trying to send across. Hopefully, this will clear up some confusion and misunderstanding some people have about this anime.

Spoiler for Long text:

This anime has existentialism plastered all over it! Angel beats takes place in a world of the afterlife, where youth come to get over their lifeís regret. In order words, people are being thrown in to an unknown world trying to find meaning in their lives. Before we dwell into the themes of existentialism shown in the anime, we should first look at the main characters, and the role they play in the anime.

Yuri Nakamura
She represents the unity of human existence by striving to create and develop ties with other people. She is able to unite the lost souls of the afterlife by giving them a reason to exist and stay. She also succeeds in preserving her own unique identity by not conforming to any rules or standards. Even though she was the leader of the SSS, she didnít let the goal of the SSS cloud her judgment, and every decision she makes is mostly based on rational thought and observation. She also represents humanís endless struggle to seek meaning and fight against the absurd. She views Kanade as an absurdity, so that is why she fought against her.

Kanade Tachibana
She represents the contradictions in human life. Her Guard Skills contradicts the concepts of reality and the abilities or a normal human being. For example, blades appearing from her wrist out of nowhere, deflecting bullets through some kind of force field, creating copies of herself, and so on. Despite her small, quiet and innocent appearance, she is an incredibly strong and competent fighter. She is view as a physical incarnation of the absurd by Yuri and the rest of the SSS because of her contradictions against normal human beings and their expectations. Unlike Yuri, Kanade failed at developing ties with other people, which lead her to loneliness and alienation.

Yuzuru Otonashi
Heís an interesting character in that he doesnít have any memories when he first arrived into the afterlife. Without any memories, he begins to create an identity for himself during the afterlife, and seek meaning about the afterlife. Unlike Yuri, he bases his decision on his morals and values. He always questions the SSS actions, and what they are doing is right or wrong. This becomes apparent when he wondered if Kanade could become his friend and join the SSS, which no rational SSS member would think of. This becomes further apparent after he regains his memories, where he decided to help everyone in the SSS disappear, which contradicts the major SSS goal of keeping everyone from disappearing. Because Otonashi uses his morals and values to make decisions instead of rational thought, he is able to accept the absurd, and develop ties with Kanade.

Yui
She represents the way people should live in the afterlife. She didnít join the SSS because she thought her life was unfair and wanted revenge against God. She just wanted to experience things in the afterlife she couldnít in life because of her paralysis. She didnít mope around the past like the others, but instead concentrated on fulfilling her dream in the afterlife. I think she symbolizes Maeda Junís belief that people who received a second chance at life should use it to fulfill something that couldnít when they were alive and move forward in life. This also why I think she got an opening and an ending dedicated to her.

Hinata
He is there to remind people that life is suppose to be fun and enjoyable, so he acts as a comic relief throughout the anime. He is like Otonashi. He makes decisions based on his morals, which is why he gets along so well with Otonashi. For example, how he felt guilty for invading Kanadeís room, and helped Otonashi with his task of making everyone disappear. However, the thing that sets him apart from Otonashi is his loyalty towards Yuri. It is this loyalty that prevents him from reaching out to Kanade.

Naoi
He represents identity. Is identity just your name written on an official document? Well in the anime, it tries to show the viewers that identity is something you create and unique. Even though Naoi live a life based on his brotherís life, the life is still his. This is because Naoiís identity is created through his own choices and hard work, and not his brothers. Even though his brother played a large factor into making those decisions, it was his decisions, and thus, it was his life.

Plot and how it relates to Existentialist themes

Existence precedes essence-This theme states that your essence (personality) is created through the choices you make in your life. No one is born with a determined personality; personality is what every human being creates for themselves. Human beings first exist, encounter itself, create a self-identity, and then define said self-identify.

In the beginning of Angel Beats!, Otonashi wakes up in an unfamiliar world with no memories. This is the moment where he first exists. He tries to regain his memories to discover who he is, and attempts to acquire an identity for himself. Because he has no memories to base his decisions on, he at first makes decisions based on survival and observations, and joins the SSS to fight against Kanade. During the first 6 episodes, we see him slowly create his own identify through decisions based on what he observed, knew, and believed. However, when Otonashi gets his memories back, he began to change. With his memories back, he now has his values and morals to base his decisions upon. He began make decisions that contradicts the SSSís beliefs by trying to befriend Kanade and bring her into the SSS. He created a new identity for himself by incorporating the identity he created in the afterlife with the identity he had when he was alive. In the end, we see him define his own self-identity as person who whose task in the afterlife is to help lost souls move on.

Absurdity-Human beings always try to find meaning to irrational world. They cannot accept the fact that something cannot happen without a rational reason, so human beings makes meaningless attempts to fight and seek meaning to the absurd. Incidents of absurdity persist throughout the anime. Naming all instances of absurdity would make a ridiculously long list.

Yuri and SSS create a rational meaning to the existence of the afterlife and the unfairness of their life by blaming it on god. Because of Kanadeís unnatural powers and awkward personality, Yuri views her as an agent of god, an element of the absurd. This is the reason why Yuri fought against Kanade. It is not because she dislikes Kanade, but because Kanade represents the absurdity and irrationality in human existence, which Yuri and the SSS must fight against. When Yuri tries to find meaning to absurd by discovering how Kanade receives her powers, she realizes that she didnít receive it from god, and that she was a normal human being. This began to make her think that the struggle against god and the fight against Kanade are meaningless.
However, from Kanadeís perspective, she may also perceive the SSS as the one being absurd. This is because Kanade wanted to show them life that isnít unfair, so they can overcome their regrets and move on. However, when the SSS do not want to live a normal life and overcome their regrets, it does not make sense to Kanade. Therefore, we have the big misunderstanding to why Kanade and the SSS are fighting. They both think each other is absurd.

Freedom of Choice and Responsibility- Humans beings has absolute freedom over the choices they make, and must take responsibility for their choices.

In Angel Beats!, the characters have absolute freedom in making their own decisions, but they must also take responsibility for them. Throughout the anime, we see characters make decisions, which they take the responsibility for them and reflect on them. For example, Otonashi reflects on his decision about joining the SSS, saying that he could have become Kanadeís friends if he had not joined. Maybe the most prevalent example is when Yuri reflects back upon her original decision to form the SSS to fight against Kanade. If she had tried to understand her, then maybe she could also become her friend, and the whole war wouldnít have started. However, she has already made the decision and must accept the responsibility for war, and the trouble she caused for Kanade because of her decisions.

Angst and Despair- Angst is an emotion strongly linked to freedom and responsibility. It is the feeling that nothing is ďstopping me from doing thisĒ, and the fear that one cannot base its next action on anything. The difference between existential anxiety and normal anxiety is that the person can remove the object of fear in normal anxiety, while in existential anxiety; the object of fear cannot be removed. Despair is when the person enters a hopeless state due to collapse of beliefs or important elements of their life.

For despair, all the characterís pasts qualify, except for Otonashiís. However, Otonashi does undergo despair when he loses Kanade in the end. The characters are always facing anxiety because nothing is holding them back from disappearing.

Awareness of death- Humans are scared of death, but it also means that they fear life. By accepting the reality of death, one can be able to fully live their life with meaning.

In Angel Beats!, death to them is disappearing. Everyone there is afraid to live their afterlife fully and meaningfully because if they do, they will disappear. The fear of death is what restricting their ability to live, and also prevent them from moving forward in life. In the end, when the SSS member accepted the inevitability of them disappearing, they found meaning to their life and happily disappeared. Explicitly shown the last episode, where every character has accepted the inevitability of their disappearance, they were all happy and living fully. They are no longer scared of disappearing, which grants them the freedom of being able to fully understand themselves and move on in life.

I like how you've got a lot of interesting observations in your long paragraphs. But man those sentences don't flow. Very hard to read so I had to give up 2/3 way.

I really like that Yui observation. Her episode had no OP or ED that I can recall.

Also in Angel Beats, it seems that adversity is never permanent. The enemy keeps changing, the plot keeps twisting but the fundamentals of the high school will always remain the same. PEOPLE's views change. People's views clash with others' views. Some are radical (matrix reload guy, Naoi). Others are benign (Yui).

The reason why the show never locks down on one particular plot point and develops from there is because it doesn't believe its afterlife setting has one. Maybe it is a little bit like what Attorney was saying, that it is a statement on existentialism. Personally I would not make so many jumps of logic regarding existentialism and all. Not all symbology in Angel Beats needs to be 1:1 in representation of another facet of real life. Having read most of Maeda's works, he is not a writer that is capable of organizing all of his thoughts to that degree of literary brilliance (He IS an eroge writer after all). To me, All symbolism needs to do, is to create a 'feeling'. I do not 'feel' that the haphazard storyline and constant plot twists were altogether meaningless, intentional or not.

The last episode is getting bashed quite severely in the Ep13 thread. But overall I really enjoyed this show.

In order to enjoy this series, you really have to throw logic out the window. It is not meant to be a series that has all the dots connected for you at the end. It's much more of a touchy-feely show. If you do not immediately gravitate to Otonashi's kindness or Yuri's inner struggles as a leader, then this show is not for you. It's melodramatic so get your popcorn, pump up the speakers and enjoy - for goodness sake. Don't overanalysis or It will cost you the show. The theme of redemption is presented very clearly in this show, see it and feel it with your heart.

Not so bashed if you check the rating poll. As usual, the complainers are more loud than anything else.

"I'll show you that a superior mobile suit has its limits when it goes up against a superior pilot!" - Char Aznable, The Red Comet"Come on! I don't feel like losing!" - Johnny Ridden, The Crimson Lightning"Hatred is the root of all war! That's common sense, boy!" - Anavel Gato, The Nightmare of Solomon

My view on the anime, and the message Jun Maeda is trying to send across. Hopefully, this will clear up some confusion and misunderstanding some people have about this anime.

Spoiler for Long text:

This anime has existentialism plastered all over it! Angel beats takes place in a world of the afterlife, where youth come to get over their lifeís regret. In order words, people are being thrown in to an unknown world trying to find meaning in their lives. Before we dwell into the themes of existentialism shown in the anime, we should first look at the main characters, and the role they play in the anime.

Yuri Nakamura
She represents the unity of human existence by striving to create and develop ties with other people. She is able to unite the lost souls of the afterlife by giving them a reason to exist and stay. She also succeeds in preserving her own unique identity by not conforming to any rules or standards. Even though she was the leader of the SSS, she didnít let the goal of the SSS cloud her judgment, and every decision she makes is mostly based on rational thought and observation. She also represents humanís endless struggle to seek meaning and fight against the absurd. She views Kanade as an absurdity, so that is why she fought against her.

Kanade Tachibana
She represents the contradictions in human life. Her Guard Skills contradicts the concepts of reality and the abilities or a normal human being. For example, blades appearing from her wrist out of nowhere, deflecting bullets through some kind of force field, creating copies of herself, and so on. Despite her small, quiet and innocent appearance, she is an incredibly strong and competent fighter. She is view as a physical incarnation of the absurd by Yuri and the rest of the SSS because of her contradictions against normal human beings and their expectations. Unlike Yuri, Kanade failed at developing ties with other people, which lead her to loneliness and alienation.

Yuzuru Otonashi
Heís an interesting character in that he doesnít have any memories when he first arrived into the afterlife. Without any memories, he begins to create an identity for himself during the afterlife, and seek meaning about the afterlife. Unlike Yuri, he bases his decision on his morals and values. He always questions the SSS actions, and what they are doing is right or wrong. This becomes apparent when he wondered if Kanade could become his friend and join the SSS, which no rational SSS member would think of. This becomes further apparent after he regains his memories, where he decided to help everyone in the SSS disappear, which contradicts the major SSS goal of keeping everyone from disappearing. Because Otonashi uses his morals and values to make decisions instead of rational thought, he is able to accept the absurd, and develop ties with Kanade.

Yui
She represents the way people should live in the afterlife. She didnít join the SSS because she thought her life was unfair and wanted revenge against God. She just wanted to experience things in the afterlife she couldnít in life because of her paralysis. She didnít mope around the past like the others, but instead concentrated on fulfilling her dream in the afterlife. I think she symbolizes Maeda Junís belief that people who received a second chance at life should use it to fulfill something that couldnít when they were alive and move forward in life. This also why I think she got an opening and an ending dedicated to her.

Hinata
He is there to remind people that life is suppose to be fun and enjoyable, so he acts as a comic relief throughout the anime. He is like Otonashi. He makes decisions based on his morals, which is why he gets along so well with Otonashi. For example, how he felt guilty for invading Kanadeís room, and helped Otonashi with his task of making everyone disappear. However, the thing that sets him apart from Otonashi is his loyalty towards Yuri. It is this loyalty that prevents him from reaching out to Kanade.

Naoi
He represents identity. Is identity just your name written on an official document? Well in the anime, it tries to show the viewers that identity is something you create and unique. Even though Naoi live a life based on his brotherís life, the life is still his. This is because Naoiís identity is created through his own choices and hard work, and not his brothers. Even though his brother played a large factor into making those decisions, it was his decisions, and thus, it was his life.

Plot and how it relates to Existentialist themes

Existence precedes essence-This theme states that your essence (personality) is created through the choices you make in your life. No one is born with a determined personality; personality is what every human being creates for themselves. Human beings first exist, encounter itself, create a self-identity, and then define said self-identify.

In the beginning of Angel Beats!, Otonashi wakes up in an unfamiliar world with no memories. This is the moment where he first exists. He tries to regain his memories to discover who he is, and attempts to acquire an identity for himself. Because he has no memories to base his decisions on, he at first makes decisions based on survival and observations, and joins the SSS to fight against Kanade. During the first 6 episodes, we see him slowly create his own identify through decisions based on what he observed, knew, and believed. However, when Otonashi gets his memories back, he began to change. With his memories back, he now has his values and morals to base his decisions upon. He began make decisions that contradicts the SSSís beliefs by trying to befriend Kanade and bring her into the SSS. He created a new identity for himself by incorporating the identity he created in the afterlife with the identity he had when he was alive. In the end, we see him define his own self-identity as person who whose task in the afterlife is to help lost souls move on.

Absurdity-Human beings always try to find meaning to irrational world. They cannot accept the fact that something cannot happen without a rational reason, so human beings makes meaningless attempts to fight and seek meaning to the absurd. Incidents of absurdity persist throughout the anime. Naming all instances of absurdity would make a ridiculously long list.

Yuri and SSS create a rational meaning to the existence of the afterlife and the unfairness of their life by blaming it on god. Because of Kanadeís unnatural powers and awkward personality, Yuri views her as an agent of god, an element of the absurd. This is the reason why Yuri fought against Kanade. It is not because she dislikes Kanade, but because Kanade represents the absurdity and irrationality in human existence, which Yuri and the SSS must fight against. When Yuri tries to find meaning to absurd by discovering how Kanade receives her powers, she realizes that she didnít receive it from god, and that she was a normal human being. This began to make her think that the struggle against god and the fight against Kanade are meaningless.
However, from Kanadeís perspective, she may also perceive the SSS as the one being absurd. This is because Kanade wanted to show them life that isnít unfair, so they can overcome their regrets and move on. However, when the SSS do not want to live a normal life and overcome their regrets, it does not make sense to Kanade. Therefore, we have the big misunderstanding to why Kanade and the SSS are fighting. They both think each other is absurd.

Freedom of Choice and Responsibility- Humans beings has absolute freedom over the choices they make, and must take responsibility for their choices.

In Angel Beats!, the characters have absolute freedom in making their own decisions, but they must also take responsibility for them. Throughout the anime, we see characters make decisions, which they take the responsibility for them and reflect on them. For example, Otonashi reflects on his decision about joining the SSS, saying that he could have become Kanadeís friends if he had not joined. Maybe the most prevalent example is when Yuri reflects back upon her original decision to form the SSS to fight against Kanade. If she had tried to understand her, then maybe she could also become her friend, and the whole war wouldnít have started. However, she has already made the decision and must accept the responsibility for war, and the trouble she caused for Kanade because of her decisions.

Angst and Despair- Angst is an emotion strongly linked to freedom and responsibility. It is the feeling that nothing is ďstopping me from doing thisĒ, and the fear that one cannot base its next action on anything. The difference between existential anxiety and normal anxiety is that the person can remove the object of fear in normal anxiety, while in existential anxiety; the object of fear cannot be removed. Despair is when the person enters a hopeless state due to collapse of beliefs or important elements of their life.

For despair, all the characterís pasts qualify, except for Otonashiís. However, Otonashi does undergo despair when he loses Kanade in the end. The characters are always facing anxiety because nothing is holding them back from disappearing.

Awareness of death- Humans are scared of death, but it also means that they fear life. By accepting the reality of death, one can be able to fully live their life with meaning.

In Angel Beats!, death to them is disappearing. Everyone there is afraid to live their afterlife fully and meaningfully because if they do, they will disappear. The fear of death is what restricting their ability to live, and also prevent them from moving forward in life. In the end, when the SSS member accepted the inevitability of them disappearing, they found meaning to their life and happily disappeared. Explicitly shown the last episode, where every character has accepted the inevitability of their disappearance, they were all happy and living fully. They are no longer scared of disappearing, which grants them the freedom of being able to fully understand themselves and move on in life.

My view on the anime, and the message Jun Maeda is trying to send across. Hopefully, this will clear up some confusion and misunderstanding some people have about this anime.

Spoiler for Long text:

Kanade Tachibana
She represents the contradictions in human life. Her Guard Skills contradicts the concepts of reality and the abilities or a normal human being. For example, blades appearing from her wrist out of nowhere, deflecting bullets through some kind of force field, creating copies of herself, and so on. Despite her small, quiet and innocent appearance, she is an incredibly strong and competent fighter. She is view as a physical incarnation of the absurd by Yuri and the rest of the SSS because of her contradictions against normal human beings and their expectations. Unlike Yuri, Kanade failed at developing ties with other people, which lead her to loneliness and alienation.

Okay so what about my waifu when she gains her wings? Are they referring to a contradiction which people actually do respect and look up to?

In the last episode, it seems that she does have a zealous nature (pun unintended) when it comes to friendship, making her more ordinary than not. And somehow, she helps to free others from their ties to their previous life, so she represents something like......the wings of liberty? (Again, pun unintended.)

__________________

When three puppygirls named after pastries are on top of each other, it is called Eclair a'la menthe et Biscotti aux fraises avec beaucoup de Ricotta sur le dessus.
Most of all, you have to be disciplined and you have to save, even if you hate our current financial system. Because if you don't save, then you're guaranteed to end up with nothing.

Okay so what about my waifu when she gains her wings? Are they referring to a contradiction which people actually do respect and look up to?

In the last episode, it seems that she does have a zealous nature (pun unintended) when it comes to friendship, making her more ordinary than not. And somehow, she helps to free others from their ties to their previous life, so she represents something like......the wings of liberty? (Again, pun unintended.)

I always thought Kanade created her wings based on Yuzuru request to make her look more angelic, and the director's attempt to increase her moe level.

Kanade was always enthusiastic about about friendship. She just didn't know how to create ties with other people. It doesn't matter if you cared deeply about friendship, if you cannot even make friends in the first place. It is only when Yuzuru befriended her, and help her create ties with the other members of the SSS does she start to show a more friendly and caring side.

She can represent the wings of liberty. As a matter of fact, many of the characters can represent something different than what i have posted because of subjectivity. I chose what the character best represented for me in relation to what I think the show is trying tell the viewers.

Not so bashed if you check the rating poll. As usual, the complainers are more loud than anything else.

Asuki polls are never good barometers in representing how good a series is. A series can be horribly directed and written and still gain 10s (Code Geass R2 comes to mind), while a good series can get 5s (Natsume Yuujincho).

And yes, I'm one of those that found Angel Beats entertaining, but very flawed in terms of execution. One would have to be blind not to see the issues inherent in the series. Well, either that or a diehard Key/Maeda fan.

I really enjoyed this because it sort of incorporated alot of different genres like supernatural, comedy, action, drama, moe well you get the picture which I really enjoyed about it because in one episode they could have funny plot lines slapstick and then next have a dramatic eye watering episode. This way you weren't exactly getting bored of the storyline and skip to the last episode which I have done. I've probably knocked the flow of this thread completely off course but this was something I couldn't not leave a reply on.